Headlines:
- Saudi uses Gulf, Arab and Muslim countries meetings to rally against Iran not US or Jewish entity
- American Plan for Palestine is Intended to Eliminate it
- Western Divisions evident again over China
- Qatar Attendance at Saudi Summit Raises Prospect of Detente
- Taliban, Russia Demand Foreign Troops Leave Afghanistan
- Trade War Threatens U.S. Access to Rare Earths, Says China State Media
Saudi uses Gulf, Arab and Muslim countries meetings to rally against Iran not US or Jewish entity
According to the Guardian: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has said that attacks on Saudi oil assets last month are a threat to global oil supplies and regional security, while again accusing Iran-backed groups of carrying them out.
“The drone attacks on Saudi oil pumping stations carried out by groups supported by Iran not only threaten the security of the kingdom and the Gulf, but also threaten maritime safety and global oil supplies,” Salman said at an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in the Saudi city of Mecca on Saturday.
On Friday Salman convened emergency summits of Gulf and then Arab leaders to discuss drone strikes on oil installations in Saudi and attacks on four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, off the UAE coast in May. Salman told the Arab meeting that decisive action was needed to stop Iranian “escalations” in the region.
Riyadh has accused Tehran of ordering the drone strikes, which were claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group. US national security adviser John Bolton said on Thursday that evidence of Iran’s being behind the tanker attacks would be presented to the UN Security Council as early as next week.
Tehran has denied involvement in either attack.
Salman said the summit would seek to confront “aggressive threats and subversive activities” and work for the future of Arab and Islamic states.
Instead of targeting the root of troubles in the Gulf, the Arab and the Muslim world, which is the interference of the foreign disbeliever, in particular the superpower, the United States of America, the Saudi King, Salman, is attempting to rally against Iran.
It is the American and Western agenda to divide Muslim countries against each other. The very design of these international bodies, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Countries is intended to perpetuate divisions amongst Muslims by maintaining independent sovereign nation states, even though Muslims are one nation which should have a singular state, system and leadership, as existed for more than a thousand years under successive Khulafa (Caliphs) entrusted and pledged to lead the Ummah in accordance with Islam.
It is America that inflamed tensions with Iran; but now Trump claims he doesn’t want war and has pushed the countries in the region, led by the Saudi King, to confront Iran.
American Plan for Palestine is intended to Eliminate it
According to Reuters: The U.S. blueprint to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, still in draft form after almost two years, is seen by Palestinians, and by some Arab officials and politicians, as a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause.
The initiative, driven by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser, was billed by the U.S. president as the “deal of the century”.
While its precise outlines have yet to be revealed, Palestinian and Arab sources who have been briefed on the draft plan say Kushner has jettisoned the two-state solution – the long-standing U.S. and international formula that envisages an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza.
After several postponements, Washington plans a first formal outing of the economic components of the plan at a “Peace for Prosperity” workshop in June in Bahrain.
The Western one-state and two-state solutions have long been history. They were introduced at a time when the West were uncertain of the reaction of Muslim rulers to the Jewish presence. But as the rulers of Muslims have proved to be ever more unprincipled, weak and pliable in Western hands, the Jewish entity has been allowed to take full control of the land of Palestine, relegating its original inhabitants as mere colonial subjects. America’s latest plan, the so-called ‘deal of the century’ is only intended to formalise an already existing reality.
The Muslim Ummah is fully capable of taking back the relatively small land of Palestine from the Jews. But this will never happen as long as we are ruled by an agent class that is captive, emotionally, intellectually and politically, to its Western masters.
Western Divisions Evident again over China
According to Reuters: The United States raised the pressure on Western allies in a war of attrition over next-generation networks on Friday, saying countries that allow China’s Huawei to build their telecoms infrastructure could be cut off from crucial intelligence data.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued the warning after meeting Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of Germany, which has so far stood with Britain and France in declining calls to ban the state-owned manufacturer from the 5G networks now being built.
In the latest sign of escalating trans-Atlantic tensions over trade and security, Pompeo, on the first leg of a five-day European tour, said that while countries would take a “sovereign decision” on which equipment to use, that decision would have consequences.
The Western countries all share the same history, culture and ideological perspective. Yet they never cease struggling against each other, as is evident once more over the issue of China’s ascendancy as a global power. While wanting America to take leadership in confronting China’s rise, the European powers also want to take benefit from this struggle, and technology is one area in which they see the possibility of countering America’s overbearing approach and the excessive domination of its global technology companies. But America also is aware of European moves, and is using the issue of Huawei’s 5G technology to force Europe back into line.
These conflicts and struggles between the disbelievers should give Muslims confidence that, if united under a singular leadership, there is nothing to stop them becoming the first nation on this planet once more, as they were previously for over a millennium under the rule of the Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State.
Qatar Attendance at Saudi Summit Raises Prospect of Detente
A possible US-backed thaw in Qatari-Saudi relations has been signalled by Qatari diplomats travelling to Saudi Arabia to lay the ground for their country’s attendance at a major summit in Mecca on alleged Iranian aggression in the region. Qatar’s attendance will be seen as the biggest rapprochement between the two countries since the Saudis launched a sweeping economic and political blockade against the gas-rich country two years ago, accusing Doha of trying to undermine Saudi Arabia, fund terrorism and promote the Muslim Brotherhood across the Middle East. King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia invited Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, to attend the emergency Gulf Cooperation Council summit on Iran’s alleged role in attacking Gulf shipping and oil installations. Qatar – unlike Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates – has so far retained support for the Iran nuclear deal. Although determined to follow an independent foreign policy, it will not be seeking to alienate Donald Trump by spurning Washington’s pressure to curtail Iranian aggression in the region. Qatar has an economic interest in ensuring gas and oil installations are not the subject of attacks by Iranian proxy forces. It also acts as the host to the largest US military base in the Gulf. Riyadh has accused Tehran of ordering the recent drone attacks on two oil-pumping stations in the kingdom, claimed by Yemen’s Houthis. Iran denied it was behind the attacks and a succession of Iranian politicians have said they are not seeking a military confrontation, although they said they wanted crippling US economic sanctions lifted. One Saudi-owned news outlet, Arab News, urged Washington to launch a surgical strike against Iran, but this view is not universally held in Saudi media. Washington has blown hot and cold in its demands on Iran, with Trump saying he was not seeking regime change in Tehran, merely a renegotiation of the nuclear deal. He said the deal was full of loopholes that allowed Tehran to achieve nuclear breakout too rapidly. Qatar is likely to urge caution by all sides, as well as privately appeal to Tehran not to sponsor proxies to attack Saudi oil assets. The Houthi rebel forces in Yemen, increasingly capable of mounting drone attacks, have the ability to operate independently from Iran. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, has been trying to counter Saudi diplomacy by holding bilateral meetings in the region, including in Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. The US has been putting private pressure on Saudi Arabia and Qatar to bury their differences ahead of the imminent publication of the Middle East peace plan by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The “deal of the century”, due to be discussed at the economic workshop for Gulf finance ministers in Manama, Bahrain, in June, centres on a plan to help the Palestinian territories economically. Kushner is touring the region to promote the plan and to try to secure political buy-in. He is also due to join Trump on the state visit to the UK at the start of June. [Source: The Guardian].
Is it not strange how the Gulf countries are able to mend their differences at the behest of America? The same countries that are supposedly against Iran are paving the way for the Trump administration to announce New Palestine—the deal of the century.
Taliban, Russia Demand Foreign Troops Leave Afghanistan
The Taliban and Russia have jointly called for the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition troops from Afghanistan, with a top leader of the Islamist insurgent group denouncing the foreign presence in the country as a major obstacle to Afghan peace. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the political deputy of the Taliban, made the remarks in Moscow to a gathering of Russian and Afghan government personnel, as well as representatives from prominent political groups from the war-torn country. Russia organized the meeting to mark the 100th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Afghanistan. “The Islamic Emirate [Taliban] is truly committed to peace but the first step is to remove obstacles in the way of peace, meaning the occupation of Afghanistan must come to an end,” Baradar said in rare public appearance and speech. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in his welcome address to the group urged that foreign forces leave Afghanistan. He underscored the importance of bilateral relations, saying Russia is ready to offer more help to Afghanistan to fight terrorist groups led by Islamic State and drug-trafficking networks. “This conflict in Afghanistan has no military solution and the only way to settle this issue is to rely on diplomacy and politics. We believe all foreign military [forces] should be withdrawn from the country and the society of Afghanistan should unite in finding a solution,” the Russian foreign minister stressed. “We believe that Afghanistan should stay united where all the ethnic groups can live peacefully. We hope that peace will settle in Afghanistan as soon as possible,” Lavrov added, saying that accelerated Afghan peace-building efforts recently initiated by Moscow are furthering the peace process. The meetings in Moscow come as months of direct peace negotiations between the United States and the Taliban appear to have slowed down, if not deadlocked, over the insurgents’ refusal to cease hostilities until all U.S.-led international forces withdraw from Afghanistan. Washington has linked its troop withdrawal move to counterterrorism assurances by the Taliban, a comprehensive cease-fire and the insurgent group’s participation in a peace dialogue with the Afghan government and other groups to end years of hostilities. The U.S.-led military invasion ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001 for sheltering al-Qaida leaders blamed for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on American cites. The Islamist group rejected the charges and has since retaken control or influences nearly half of the country, inflicting heavy casualties on American-backed and trained embattled Afghan security forces. [Source: Vox News]
No matter how hard America’s domestic politics loath Russia, it is increasingly clear that the Trump administration is using Russia to give impetus to the floundering Afghan peace process.
Trade War Threatens U.S. Access to Rare Earths, says China State Media
Washington’s trade war with Beijing puts it at risk of losing access to China-produced rare earths, which are critical to manufacturing, a commentary in state media said on Wednesday. The commentary follows President Xi Jinping’s visit last week to a Chinese rare earths company — a move widely read as a threat, after President Donald Trump banned U.S. companies from providing technology to China’s Huawei over concerns the telecom giant’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage. Trump’s move against Huawei, a rapidly expanding leader in super-fast 5G wireless technology, came as part of a trade war that he began last year over what the U.S. president calls China’s unfair trade policies. Since then, the two sides have exchanged tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of two-way trade. After the Huawei ban, Xi called on cadres to brace for a “new Long March,” and editorial commentaries have lambasted Washington. “While meeting domestic demands is a priority, China is willing to try its best to satisfy global demand for rare earths as long as they are used for legitimate purposes,” Wednesday’s commentary on state-run Xinhua news agency said. “However, if anyone wants to use imported rare earths against China, the Chinese people will not agree.” During his visit to the rare earths company, Xi said that they are “not only an important strategic resource, but also a non-renewable resource,” Xinhua reported earlier. However, analysts have said China appears apprehensive of targeting the minerals just yet, possibly fearful of hastening a global search for alternative supplies of the commodities. China produces more than 95 percent of the world’s rare earths, and the United States relies on China for upwards of 80 percent of its imports. Rare earths are 17 elements critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and televisions to cameras and light bulbs. That gives Beijing tremendous leverage in what is shaping up largely as a battle between the U.S. and China over who will own the future of high-tech. [Source: Japan Times]
The world is fast descending into a bipolar technology order, as the trade war between US and China goes high tech. The main centerpiece of the trade war between the two countries has always been about 5G, AI and other digital technologies that increasingly constitute the new economy. The winner of the 5G war will dominate trade for years to come.